Converting equipment is known for automatically stuffing envelopes. Such equipment may include components for feeding a pre-printed web of paper, for cutting such web into one or more discrete sheets for collating sheets, and for feeding such discrete sheet collations into envelopes. Such equipment may further include components to convey the stuffed envelopes to a specified location. The industry has long known devices which accomplish these and other functions. However, improvements are needed where high volumes of paper pieces count and high speeds are required without sacrificing reliability, accuracy and quality of end product.
More particularly, a large roll of paper is typically printed in discrete areas with piece specific information. That is, the initial roll of paper comprises vast numbers of discrete areas of already-printed indicia-specific information with each discrete area defining what is to eventually comprise a single page or sheet of indicia specific information. To complicate the process, a variable number of sheets with related indicia must be placed into the envelopes so that the content of one envelope varies from the content of another by sheet count and, of course, by the specific indicia on the included sheets. As one example, financial reports of multiple customers or account specifics may require a varied number of customer or account specific sheets to be cut, respectively collated, stuffed and discharged for delivery. Thus, the contents of each envelope include either a single sheet or a “collation” of from two to many sheets, each “collation” being specific to a mailing to an addressee.
In such an exemplary operation, a financial institution might send billing or invoice information to each of its customers. The billing information or “indicia” for one customer may require anywhere from one final sheet to a number of sheets which must be collated, then placed in that customer's envelope. While all this information can be printed in sheet size discrete areas, on a single roll, these areas must be well defined, cut, merged or collated into sheets for the same addressee or destination, placed into envelopes, treated and discharged. Thus, a system for conducting this process has in the past included certain typical components, such as a paper roll stand, drive, sheet cutter, merge unit, accumulate or collate unit, folder, envelope feeder, envelope inserter, and finishing and discharge units. Conventional electronic controls are used to operate the system to correlate the functions so correct sheets are collated and placed in correct destination envelopes.
In such conventional systems, the pass-through rate from paper roll to finished envelope is dependent on the speed of each component, and overall production speed is a function of the slowest or weakest link component. Overall reliability is similarly limited. Moreover, the mean down time from any malfunction or failure to repair is limited by the most repair-prone, most maintenance consumptive component. Such conventional systems are capital intensive, requiring significant floor plan or footprint, and require significant labor, materials and maintenance capabilities and facilities.
Moreover, controlling conventional systems is often costly and inefficient. For example, conventional systems utilizing system buses often run at slow bus speeds and require the use of a plurality of custom configured computing systems to operate a plurality of components. Specifically, use of a plurality of custom configured computing systems increases the latency for operative control of conventional systems, as each message to any of the custom configured computing system is received, translated and processed by each custom configured computing system. Additionally, use of the plurality of custom configured computing systems increases the latency for communications on a bus line, increases the amount of synchronization required to keep each of the plurality of custom configured computing systems running at the same speed and with the same clock synchronization, increases the overall complexity of program code to operate the conventional system and thus the time required to execute that program code, and is subject to wasted processing time dealing with handing off and receiving of messages that are not addressed to a particular custom computing system, processor thereof and/or component related thereto. Moreover, the use of a plurality of custom configured computing systems results in the increased likelihood of failure due to the additional hardware required, the potential unreliability of custom components, configurations and/or architectures, as well as the requirement of the use of a vast number of oftentimes expensive components, configurations and/or architectures. For example, each processor of each custom configured computing system may be configured on a custom board with related (and also possibly custom configured) supporting components, such as memory, bus controllers, I/O controllers, storage controllers, etc. The increased hardware and complexity, in turn, results in an increased likelihood of failure of such conventional systems.
Furthermore, conventional systems may be incapable of providing real-time control of the operations thereof. For example, each module of a conventional system may follow its own business rules based on the typical timing required to move a document from a first position to a second position. In such systems, related inaccuracies in knowing the exact movement or location of a particular document are accounted for by building in windows for controlling particular components of the systems, which prevents the operation thereof at greater speeds. Additionally, related inaccuracies may prevent tracking of any particular document within a conventional system. Thus, neither the exact operation of conventional systems, nor data associated with documents being processed in the conventional systems, can be tracked or controlled in real-time.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved apparatus and related methods of controlling converting equipment that address the problems of conventional systems of the type described above.